Machina
by Halloween Lantern
Summary: Winry wasn't sure what would happen when she found a strange child in the cemetery. With a strange pentagram on his temple and silver eyes with no whites, he was something different. Winry wasn't expecting how different he was when she took him to the military.
1. Chapter 1

A small boy sat and stared at a small granite tombstone. The tombstone had a wreath of daisies, white clover, and heliotrope. Innocence, remember me, and eternal love. The small boy looked around nine to about twelve or so. He cocked his head at the tombstone curiously, not quite understanding it.

_Michael Adams_

_Born Aug 4, 1921. Died May 12, 1931_

_I am the boy that has stopped to smell the flowers and jump and splash in the rain. _

The young boy blinked. The breeze softly teased his messy pale blonde hair as he stood up and turned away from the grave. Anyone who saw his eyes would be in for the surprise of their life. They were light silver with no whites at all. Just silver and a black pupil. The boy began to walk away from the tombstone.

He didn't know where he was at all. He had woken up in a alley not far from here. He had wondered over here, curious about the scent of flowers and the sculptures. He heard the crunch of someone's footsteps behind him and his head snapped around, searching for whoever was there.

It was a blonde haired girl with grayish-blue eyes. The boy paused for a second and studied the girl with a air of curiosity. The girl smiled. "I'm sorry. Are you lost. What is your name?" The girl asked. She walked closer to the boy who watched her with a air of detached interest. She gasped in surprise when she saw his eyes.

"What the? Why are your eyes like that?" The girl said. She stood in front of him and the boy craned his head to look up to her. His hair fell back showing his temple. Etched onto it was a strange looking silver pentagram filled in with symbols. The girl traced it with her fingers,frowning slightly.

This reminded her of the ouroboros tattoo Ed and Al had told her about. It was for homunculi such as the one Lust or Envy. What did this one mean? Was the little boy a homunculi? He didn't seem to be a danger. He was just watching her with vaguely interested eyes as if she was interesting but not enough.

The girl straightened up. "My name is Winry. Do you know what your name is?" The girl said. The boy frowned and tried to concentrate. What was his name? He couldn't remember it at all. Did he ever have one? There was a name stitched on his shirt collar. Was it his?

"Cecil... I think. It was stitched on my shirt." The boy said lifting his head and showing her. Winry took the Cecil's hand gently. Cecil looked at her hand then frowned. Winry realized Cecil felt chilly. Not warm like a normal person. Cecil frowned at the warmth of Winry's hand. Why wasn't he warm too?

"Well then Cecil. Do you want to go to my house?" Winry said. Cecil nodded and followed Winry as she walked out of the cemetery. Winry was nice. Cecil felt a detached sense of like toward her now. His other hand traced his pentagram as he followed Winry to her home. The heat from Winry's hand felt strange but nice.

They got to Winry's small house just as twilight began to fall. Winry let go of Cecil's hand and pulled out her keys to unlock the door. Winry guided Cecil in and he looked around in curiosity. It was small but filled with light. Tools were littered everywhere. Winry turned to Cecil after shutting the door.

"Are you thirsty or hungry?" Winry asked. Cecil frowned. Was he? He didn't really know. Winry saw the look of indecisiveness and headed for the kitchen. "You wait right here. I'll be right back." Winry said. Cecil nodded and sat on the couch. Winry looked around the kitchen . What did little kids like?

She probably shouldn't have brought Cecil home with her. He felt cold, had a strange pentagram tattoo, and his eyes looked abnormal. She always had a soft spot for kids and he didn't seem dangerous. Knowing Ed, he would have attacked and interrogated Cecil for any information on the Philosophers Stone.

Speaking of Ed... That made her think of something for Cecil. Winry pulled out the cocoa powder, milk, a pot, and a few other things. It wasn't too long before she had two cooled mugs of hot cocoa. Winry grinned and walked back into the room. Ed hated hot cocoa because it's primary ingredient was milk.

She handed one mug to Cecil then sat next to him to enjoy her hot cocoa. Cecil cocked his head at the warm mug of brown liquid in his hand. It had cooled down to room temperature before he cautiously took a sip. He cocked his head and his eyes widened. It tasted really good!

Winry giggled as she watched Cecil hastily gulp down his hot cocoa. Technically it could only be called chocolate milk now because it was getting cold. Cecil yawned sleepily after he finished the drink. Winry giggled and took the mug out of the sleepy boy's hands. "You should go to sleep." Winry said.

Cecil curled up with his head in Winry's lap. He felt like there was a different name for Winry. He sleepily tried to remember what it was. "Big.. Sister.." Cecil said before falling asleep. Winry grinned softly.

"If you want me to be." Winry said. She moved Cecil's hair aside to study the marks. She only knew about four of them meant. Transmutation, resolve, amalgamate, and brimstone. The other two was a mystery. Winry picked up her telephone and dialed a number. She leaned back in the chair.

"Ed. Are you at Central with Roy and Al? Yes? I'll be there soon. I have something to show you." Winry said softly, making sure not to wake up the sleeping child.

-/-/-

I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist. Read and Review!


	2. Chapter 2

The office was fairly normal with the rustles of paperwork and a gentle murmur of people chatting amongst themselves. Gathered around in one adjoining room though was a rather unlikely group. Roy Mustang, Riza Hawkeye, Edward Elric, and Alphonse Elric. Edward was glaring at Roy rather balefully and Al was attempting to hold him back.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SMALL, YOU NEED A MAGNIFYING GLASS TO SEE HIM?!" Ed yelled. Roy smirked happily at the angry boy's reaction. Calling him small always made him over react in the most hilarious of ways. Riza face palmed but the rest of the office just ignored it. It was something that usually happened when Fullmetal was here.

"Well you of course, midget!" Roy said gleefully. Ed snarled and tried to dive for him. He was interrupted by the sound of the door opening. They turned toward the door, and there stood Winry who face palmed when she saw Ed trying to punch Roy. She walked into the room, toying with her wrench.

"Hi." Winry said nonchalantly. They could just barely see a flicker of movement behind her. Ed shivered and backed away from Roy, keeping a careful eye on Winry's wrench. He had way too many bruises from that thing, and they always hurt incredibly bad. He had no desire to be hit again.

Roy straightened up. "So, why did you want to see us?" Riza asked. Winry flinched slightly as if she was a little nervous. They saw another flicker of movement behind her. Winry sighed and propped the wrench up against the wall. Ed gave a happy sigh. Now he had a chance to flee before she could hit him.

"Well... Meet Cecil." Winry said. Someone stepped out from behind Winry and Riza started to fumble for her gun. Ed and Roy's hands started to crackle with alchemic energy when they saw his weird eyes. Cecil felt muted curiosity as to what they were doing. He took another sip of his bottle of chocolate milk.

He had been changed out of his clothes into some more comfortable ones. Winry sighed at their reactions. "His eyes aren't even the strangest part of him." She carefully turned Cecil's head to the side and brushed away his hair, showing the pentagram tattoo. Ed growled and one of Roy's hands burst into flame.

"Winry get away from him right now! He is a homunculus! Get away so we can kill him!" Ed snarled. Al just watched as Winry stepped protectively in front of Cecil. Cecil felt the ghost of worry. The other girl had a gun pointed at him that was probably loaded. Two of the boys had strangely lit up hands. The living armor was just plain scary.

"No! I don't even think he is one! The tattoo is completely different! I don't even think he remembers much before I found him!" Winry said defending Cecil. Ed growled and lowered his hands. He couldn't get in a clear shot with Winry standing in the way. Riza lowered her gun slightly.

"We could always give him the medical test. If he is a homunculus, he will be killed immediately. If he isn't, we'll talk." Riza said. She aimed a glare at Roy who begrudgingly let the flames go out. Al set a comforting hand on Ed's shoulder. Winry watched unhappily as Cecil was led to a different room and she was left with the group.

Cecil watched the man with a white lab coat with vague curiosity, sipping on his chocolate milk. The man rolled up his sleeve and Cecil felt a sharp prick in his arm. He paused, not quite sure what to make of it. The man pulled it out and seemed surprised by the color of the liquid inside of it.

Cecil was left alone as the man went to another room. He kicked his legs lazily out of boredom and waited for something to happen. Winry looked up when one of the doctors stepped into the office room, looking perplexed. She had been this close to beating Ed and Roy to shreds with her trusty wrench.

"We tested the young boy and... The simplest reaction was we were quite surprised with what we found." The doctor said. Riza's head jerked up from cleaning her gun and Winry cocked her head, her eyes narrowed. She put her wrench down again to the relief of Ed and Roy, distracted by the doctors comment.

"What does that mean? What is wrong with Cecil?" Winry asked. She was sure Cecil wasn't a danger. She had been with him for three days, he would have plenty of opportunities to kill her or scout out military intelligence. Instead he watched her like a duckling and followed her everywhere she went.

The doctor pulled a syringe out of his pocket. It was filled with a silvery liquid and Winry frowned, recognizing it. "That's liquid metal." Winry said. Even as that, it seemed a bit off. A bit too liquid instead of syrupy. The doctor nodded in agreement. Ed and Roy seemed bored now by the conversation.

"The funniest thing is..." The doctor said. He pushed down on the end, letting a little bit fall out. Instead of hitting the floor and puddling, it turned into a cloud of silvery dust that floated down. "It never stays a liquid. This is what we took from Cecil's bloodstream. We also took a few X-rays. Cecil is... Um." The doctor said.

"Get to the point already!" Ed snapped. Winry glared at him. Ed was too ready to end this all. The doctor seemed nervous about the conclusion. Al stepped between Ed and Winry, trying to act as a peacekeeper for now. He really didn't want to have to help his comatose brother again after he got hit by Winry.

"Cecil is a machine. He is incredibly close to being human but all of his bones are metal so is his blood. His eyes are a effect of the liquid metal that serves as his blood. He is actually the closest a machine has gotten to human." The doctor said. Winry gasped. That's why he was so chilly. Cecil was technically a living machine!

Roy and Ed seemed confused by it. "Now what do we do? He isn't human but he isn't homunculus either." Al said. They heard a shuffling by the door. They turned toward it to see Cecil standing there. The bottle was gone but Cecil seemed disturbed by something. Winry noticed that for once he looked actually sad.

"So I'm just a machine? I'm not even human? Is this why I can't feel my emotions that well?" Cecil said. Winry moved toward him but Cecil and turned and bolted away. He moved supernaturally fast. He was out the doors before Winry had even stepped out of the office. She turned and glared at the group.

"Well what are you waiting for? We need to go find Cecil!" Winry snapped. Al started jogging toward the doors as well. With a irritated sigh, Ed also left to go track down Cecil. Roy was met by a gun from Riza. With a sigh, he started on his paperwork as the doctor left to go back to the labs.

I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. Read and Review if you want!


	3. Chapter 3

Cecil just kept running. He wasn't human. He was just a machine that looked and acted human. He zig zagged through the streets. He noticed bitterly that he wasn't crying. Another thing to rack up as being a inhuman machine. He dodged around people until he started reaching farther away more lonely streets.

Cecil tripped and fell on the ground, his arms instinctively coming out to catch him. He sat up and checked his legs. They stung horribly. One leg was scraped and bleeding silver metal. Cecil brushed away the gravel that was pressed into the wound. He watched as silver covered the wound before blowing away.

It was healed. Strangely, Cecil felt light headed after it happened. He looked at his hand which was covered with rapidly drying silver. Then he licked it. It tasted metallic and strange. Cecil got up, wobbling slightly and set off at a slow walk. He didn't now where he had ended up after his headlong sprint.

Fairly far away, Winry was searching frantically for Cecil. "He's not over here either!" Winry said. Ed shrugged. As far as he cared, Cecil was probably the product of some deranged scientist's experiment. He probably would have killed them all if he got the chance. Though Winry seemed to be genuinely worried.

Al looked around. He could see Winry's frantic searching and Ed's more half-hearted search. His own search wasn't going well either. For some reason, he felt like someone was watching him and something bad was about to happen. He ran to the side and turned when he heard shhzzt sound.

Lust's hand returned to normal and she smirked at the trio. Gluttony was standing next to her while Envy leaned against the wall nearby. Envy smirked gleefully at their startled reactions. "Hey Chibi. Is that your girlfriend?" Envy taunted. Al tried to hold back Ed as Ed tried to murder Envy.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SMALL HE CAN BE MISTAKEN FOR A GRAIN OF RICE?!" Ed yelled. Envy snickered. Lust sighed. Why were everyone idiots? The girl wasn't a sacrifice so she wasn't needed. Lust looked down and Gluttony looked up at her. She knew what question he would ask as soon as they saw the girl.

"Can I eat her?" Gluttony asked. Ed suddenly looked panicked as he wrenched out of Al's grip. He turned to Winry who looked frozen at the sight of the homunculi. These were the people Ed and Al tried to warn her about. She could help but notice their eyes weren't like Cecil's at all.

"Sure. She isn't needed." Lust said. Gluttony smiled, showing the ouroboros tattoo on his tongue and shot at Winry. Ed clapped his hands making walls of stone rise up in Gluttony's way to slow him down. Envy went after Ed, punching and kicking him to divert his attention. Lust stabbed at Al again.

"Run Winry! We'll be ok!" Ed yelled. Gluttony was quickly overcoming the stone walls and Ed couldn't divert his attention from Envy. Winry backed away. She had stupidly left her wrench at the military headquarters. Just as Gluttony was destroying the last wall, Winry yelped, a shrill high sound.

Cecil's head snapped up as he walked. His ears twitched as he turned. He heard a faint yelp from over there. It sounded like Winry too! Big Sister was in danger. Cecil took off at high speed, ignoring his dizziness. He stepped into the street and noticed what was happening quickly.

Ed was fighting some guy with a weird green hairstyle. Al was holding his own against a beautiful woman with long nails. A strange looking thing was about to attack Winry, obviously excited for the kill. Cecil reacted immediately and charged. He barreled into the person side, knocking them both to the ground.

The thing chomped down on Cecil's arm hard enough to break skin. Suddenly the thing looked confused. Cecil took his chance and pummeled at the thing's face as hard as he could. Te thing released Cecil's arm. Silver blood coated his arm now and it felt painful. The thing heaved up with all of its strength, throwing Cecil off.

Cecil landed next to Winry with the natural grace of a tiger. He stood up as the thing stood next to the woman, still looking confused. Cecil glared at the three people with as much anger as he could muster. It wasn't much but it was still something. Lust looked down at Gluttony

She had seen a small kid slam into Gluttony, knocking him to the ground. Now the kid was standing next to the girl, apparently not fazed by his badly bitten arm. She looked down at Gluttony. "What is wrong?" Lust asked. Gluttony looked up, still looking massively confused by what had happened.

"He tastes wrong. Like cold metal. He even feels cold. And his eyes look strange. Not human." Gluttony said. Lust examined the kid. His eyes were pure silver with just pupils. No whites at all. Plus silver blood was trickling from his wound. As Lust watched, the wound sealed itself and the silver turned to dust.

"A ouroboros? Are these the people you were talking about big sister?" Cecil asked. Winry nodded slightly. Envy backed up until he was next to Lust. Al helped the badly bruised Ed up off the ground." Their tattoo looks a little like mind. Except being in different places. And I like mine more." Cecil said.

"Who are you? What tattoo?" Envy snapped. He had seen the kid heal from Gluttony's attack and the silver maybe it was blood? Blow away. He didn't think Dante had made another Homunculus. Plus the eyes were off, being silver with no whites. The Kid cocked his head in vague interest.

"My name is Cecil, Palmtree. And this tattoo, duh." Cecil said, moving his head to the side and pushing his hair off his temple. The silver pentagram was easily visible. Envy started to vibrate with anger as Ed nearly killed himself laughing. Palmtree! The kid had latched on to Envy's most hated nickname!

Lust turned and stalked into the shadows, dragging Envy with her. Gluttony followed obediently. They had some new interesting information for Dante. Lust didn't recognize the pentagram but it meant something had happened to the kid. Winry smiled and grabbed Cecil's hand.

They took off together, Cecil following more calm now. Al picked up Ed and followed the two.

I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. Read And Review Please!


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